New York police demolish anti-Wall Street camp

Protesters in New York faced off with police Tuesday after being kicked out of their tent camp in lower Manhattan in a huge operation that threw the two-month old Occupy Wall Street movement into crisis. All morning, several hundred protesters played cat and mouse with the authorities as they searched for a way to reestablish themselves in the wake of the nighttime raid. About two dozen people were arrested when one group of activists tried to occupy a small park apparently owned by a church. The crowd marched through the Financial District and eventually turned back to Zuccotti Park, their former base, now swept clean of any trace of the old encampment, and shut off by police. For eight weeks, the park -- a short walk from the New York Stock Exchange and the World Trade Center --sheltered the birthplace of the anti-Wall Street movement. The decision by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to end the occupation followed crackdowns against similar camps across US cities, as well as the decision by officials in London to seek legal action against a camp outside Saint Paul\'s Cathedral. New York police moved in at about 1:00 am (0600 GMT) with bright lights, overwhelming numbers of helmeted officers, and an army of sanitation workers. About 200 people were arrested during the operation, which saw only sporadic violence and ended well before dawn, leaving cleaning crews to cart off piles of tents and other gear, then scrub the square. Bloomberg told a news conference that protesters\' free speech rights did not extend to \"use of tents and sleeping bags to take over a public space.\" Protesters would now have to \"occupy the space with the power of their arguments.\" But almost immediately the city\'s position was cast in doubt when a judge stayed the eviction order, as well as implementation of rules by the park\'s owners, Brookfield Properties, which ban protestors from bringing tents. Bloomberg said that the park would be closed off until the legal issue was resolved. \"We are now ready to reopen the park, but understand there is a court order enjoining us from enforcing Brookfield\'s rules, so it will remain closed until we can clarify that situation,\" he said. The Manhattan park was the symbolic epicenter of a protest that has spread to several US cities and inspired similar action around the world. It was unclear how the leaderless movement would respond. Occupy Wall Street spokesman Bill Dobbs acknowledged there had been a \"setback.\" But he said: \"we will regroup and continue. The idea will continue, it is bigger than Zuccotti Park.\" Dobbs said new protests were planned for Thursday, the day marking the start of the third month since activists first occupied Zuccotti Park. Small business owners in the area had complained about the noise and unsanitary conditions in the camp, accusing the demonstrators of trashing their store bathrooms and driving away customers. Pressure had been mounting on Bloomberg to resolve the situation in a neighborhood that is already strained by years of disruption from the World Trade Center rebuilding project. Nevertheless, Tuesday\'s raid took demonstrators by surprise. \"I was dead asleep. Then I was like, oh man, there was cops kicking the tents and people yelling \'this is not a drill!\'\" said Mutsukai Iroppoi, 22. Alden Bevington, 35, another protester, said he was also caught off guard. \"I was asleep. Then the lights came on. It was designed to freak people out, an overwhelming show of force.\" On Monday riot police dismantled a similar protest camp in Oakland, California arresting more than 30 protesters. Some 50 protesters were arrested in Portland, also on the West Coast, on Sunday. A protest in Denver was also recently broken up. Meanwhile, the City of London Corporation said in a statement it had voted to continue with litigation to clear dozens of tents at St Paul\'s Cathedral in the capital\'s financial district, while activists there expressed anger and defiance at what happened in New York. \"It\'s disgusting (what happened in Wall Street). But this is a long-term movement. This is a movement of right now and we are not going to be stopped,\" said Anthony Anamasi, a bearded protester originally from New York.